APPLETON - Using the pseudonym "Doctor Kyle Ellis," a man posing as a doctor treated unsuspecting patients and gave them medications, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in Outagamie County court.

"He treated a number of different patients, according to the allegations in the criminal complaint, including giving someone what was reportedly a flu shot but unknown what was ultimately injected," Outagamie County District Attorney Melinda Tempelis said during the initial appearance of Kyle Larsen, 32.

He also gave out other medications that are currently unidentified, she said.

"Some of these people had taken all of the medication so there's nothing left, thereby potentially endangering their safety," she said.

Larsen also provided services he called psychology and had "significant" contact with some patients with mental health diagnoses that necessitate real medical assistance, including one patient with schizophrenia, she said.

The business, called Medical Psychology of Wisconsin, was located at 345 E. Wisconsin Avenue, Suite A, in Appleton.

The Appleton resident was charged with six counts of theft through false representation, delivery a prescription drug, distribution of a controlled substance, maintaining a drug trafficking place, four counts of practicing medicine or surgery without a license, three counts of practicing pharmacy without a license, and two counts of unlicensed practice of psychology.

Calling the alleged behavior a "prescription for disaster," Outagamie County Court Commissioner Brian Figy ordered that Larsen be held on a $200,000 cash bond. A preliminary hearing is set for Dec. 12.

The people who went to him believing he was a doctor disclosed personal information to him, including the medications they were taking and their struggles with mental illnesses.

In one case, a woman said that she disclosed her history with depression and anxiety, and gave him a list of medications she was taking in addition to the names of her therapist and psychologist. She said that he recommended changing the medications she had been prescribed for depression and said he could help make those changes.

She said he offered to write her a prescription for Ritalin but she didn't accept the offer.

Then in September, he told her he would have a Ritalin prescription put in a lock box outside the business for her to pick up. The bottle held 30 pills, she said, and she took 11 over the next several days.

She felt it was odd because she had always been required to fill prescriptions at a pharmacy, but she trusted him. She said she wasn't charged for it.

She stopped using the new prescription after telling her psychologist about it, she said.

Another woman, who said she has had schizophrenia since she was 12 years old, appears to have seen him in October and November. She said he told her he was a doctor of neuropsychology and pain management.

She said their sessions were primarily verbal therapy but he also told her he could use a machine for treatment on her brain.

In addition to giving her what he said was a flu shot, she said he gave her a container of red drops to take. The shot didn't make her feel weird at all, she said.

She said he also gave her other medications, which she never took.

Officers who reviewed the medications prescribed to her reported that they appeared to be of the over-the-counter variety.

Kyle G. Larsen(Photo: Courtesy of the Appleton Police Department)

She "made a comment that people know how to take advantage of the mentally ill," the complaint states. "She also said he isn't the first mental health professional to betray her trust."

A third patient said he saw Larsen for a tick bite to his neck and was prescribed what was believed to be amoxicillin. He took the medication until it was gone.

A fourth patient who sought help for depression said that she saw a graduation certificate on the wall in his name that said Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. She said he also told her that he did surgeries in the mornings, including deep brain stimulation with other neurosurgeons.

She said he took pills her physician had prescribed to help her sleep, crushed them up and added water and oil.

Over the course of her treatment in October and November, she estimated she had paid him about $1,000.

Larsen told investigators he was a licensed practical nurse but that he had to resign from his job after he was arrested for theft. He said it was very difficult to get a nursing job after that.

He said he initially planned to start a company and get a real doctor on board.

"He stated he had a hard time getting started, which led him to do stupid things," the complaint states.

He said he couldn't afford to do the paperwork to get an LLC.

Larsen said the equipment he used was purchased from Craigslist or a garage sale and belonged to a chiropractor who had retired.

Larsen wasn't licensed as a counselor or a doctor.

He said the amoxicillin and Ritalin he gave out had belonged to him but that he had put the medication in different bottles and labeled them. He said he didn't charge for the medication he gave out.